Cordectomy is the surgical removal of a cord. It usually refers to removal of one or both

vocal cord In humans, the vocal cords, also known as vocal folds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The length of the vocal cords affects the pitch of voice, similar to a violin string. Open when breathing a ...

s, often for the purpose of treating

laryngeal cancer Laryngeal cancer is a kind of cancer that can develop in any part of the larynx (voice box). It is typically a squamous-cell carcinoma, reflecting its origin from the epithelium of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumo ...

. The word is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, combining ''chorde'' and ''ektome'' meaning excision. It can be carried out by traditional surgical techniques or, increasingly, by

carbon dioxide laser The carbon-dioxide laser (CO2 laser) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed. It was invented by C. Kumar N. Patel, Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964 and is still one of the most useful types of laser. Carbon dioxide, Carbon-dioxide lase ...

. CO₂ laser cordectomy has allowed the treatment of glottic carcinoma as a day case procedure. The procedure has also been carried out by veterinarians to reduce the volume of incessant barking by

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

s, where it is called debarking. In humans, this type of operation is usually done by

otolaryngologists Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

. Prior to surgery, the patient must be informed of serious, debilitating, and permanent consequences of surgery, most notably the loss of speaking capacity with severity correlating to the portion of vocal cords removed. A patient will be incapable of producing most vocal sounds following total cordectomy, although deep guttural screams may still be produced, and with the patient almost always retaining the ability to speak in whispers. There is little to no chance of a patient recovering their voice following a complete or near-complete cordectomy as the procedure literally removes the organs responsible for vocal utterances, and patients with a less-than-entire cordectomy will always lose some or most of their vocal range (again corresponding to the section and amount of removed vocal cords). Doctors are encouraged to explore alternative communication technologies with patients (such as

electrolarynx An electrolarynx, sometimes referred to as a "throat back", is a medical device used to produce clearer speech by those people who have lost their voice box, usually due to cancer of the larynx. The most common device is a handheld, battery-oper ...

es, whisper-amplifying devices, and

text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

software) prior to determining the acceptability of the procedure. Patients should be made to understand that the procedure is absolutely permanent and their vocal capacity (with current technology) will never recover to its range prior to the surgery, and patients with small percentages of cord removals will experience disproportionately severe loss of vocal range compared to the loss suffered by patients who have undergone a near-entire cordectomy procedure. The indications being Carcinoma of Vocal cords and Early Glottic Carcinoma etc. According to the European Laryngeal Society, Cordectomy is classified into the following types: :Type I : Subepithelial cordectomy :Type II : Subligamental cordectomy :Type III: Transmuscular cordectomy :Type IV : Total or Complete cordectomy

References

{{reflist Oral and maxillofacial surgery